DOG SHOT AFTER MAN BLAMES ANIMAL FOR HURTING SON

A Lauderhill man who believed a neighbor's dog was responsible for scratching his 5-year-old son on Sunday shot the animal three times with a 38- caliber handgun while it was tied to a tree, according to the Broward Sheriff's Office.

Marrow Monroe, 40, believed his son, Dannon, had been scratched by the dog several hours earlier, detectives said. The incident occurred in an unincorporated area near Lauderhill.

Detectives said an outraged Monroe sought out the animal, a female mixed- breed hound named Coco, and shot it at point-blank range.

"The child was allegedly scratched or somehow injured in a very minor way," said Sherry Schlueter, the Sheriff's Office animal abuse investigator.

"When the alleged shooter came home and found his son had been scratched, he went over to the house and shot the dog,," she said.

"This man left his house and came over and shot a dog tied in the backyard. He shot the dog in the face," Schlueter said late Sunday.

No charges have been filed. The incident is still under investigation.

Monroe did not answer telephone messages to his home in Lauderhill and the dog's owner, Edwin Lovett of unincorporated Broward, could not be reached.

The boy was treated at Broward General Medical Center for a scratch on his left knee and released after his father was interviewed by investigators.

Sheriff's deputies rushed the dog to Pet Emergency, a veterinary hospital in north Fort Lauderdale where it was in guarded to poor condition Sunday night, according to the attending veterinarian, Mickey Axelband.

Axelband said one bullet grazed the dog's lip and the other passed through its back, leaving internal damage and causing severe shock. The third shot missed.